St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-04
THE COLOR. OF THE DEVIL

Bishop Turner, of the African Metho-
dist church, is an able man, So widely
is his ability recognized that he was the
only speaker from abroad that the Texas
ProhibitiOnists would allow to help them
in their recent canvass. For this pur-
pose he came out from Georgia, and his
elOquence, ability and standing were
vouched for by the leading white citi-
zens Of every community in which he
spoke. At Palestine he was introduced
by Senator Reagan, and DR.. Carroll was
frequently upon his platform. In that
campaign he confined himself to the
discussion of great political question.
But that being over, he returned to his
pulpit, and is now preaching at Nash
Vile.
In a recent sermon there he endeav-
Ored to correct some erroneous opinions
alleged by him to be held by the colOred
people as to what their color will be
when they get to heaven. He greatly
satirized the idea that black folks
would be white in the next world, and
explained how the popular conception
which makes the devil a black man
came about. A black devil is the white
mans idea, and the negroes got that i'm
preston along with the rest of their
theological notions from their former
masters. In Abyssinia, said he, the
color attributed to the devil is white,
because the Abyssinians themselves are
black. The Nashville papers are much
interested in the discussion, and upon
investigation find that Milton made the
devil bright and shining spirit, whichis
little out of the conception Bishop
Turner represents as the creation of the
white mans brain. They admit, how
ever, that the popular notion is that the
devil is horned black man in tights, who
goes around with forked tall and
cloven foot to Seduce the unwary. 1t
is a curious fact, unnoticed, however, that
when called negro, the Southern black
will always reply that there is but one
negro. and he is the devil. A great deal
may be said of the history of the devil.
The word as it appears in our language.
is derived from Greek word, which
originally meant prosecutor or ac-
cuSer, aud finally come to vOnvey
the idea of a false accuser. 1t is
the word used all through the New
Testament. That men generally as
signed to the devil peculiaritieS they
dislike is true. For instance, our An
glO-SaXOn ancestors in the religious
plays of the middle ages always repre-
scented the devil with red hair. This
was doubtless due to the fact that the
Danes had red hair generally, and being
constantly depredating upon the coast
of England, they came to stand for very
imperSOnatiOnS of the evil spirit, 1t is
said that red hair was unknown in the
British Isles until the Danish inroadS,
and Sir Walter Scott makes mention of
'the remnant of the red-haired Dane"
And it is possibly from this Unborn pref
udice that red-haired children are sub
jected in this day to so much ridi-
cule. Quite different were the con-
ceptions of the Greeks, who represented
upon the stage their nOblest men and
the gods themselves with red hair.
The original conception OF the devil
is Persian. With them the world was ere
ated by two opposite and antagonistic
powers. OrmuZd and Ahriman-the
Spirit of good and the spirit Of evil who
still share the domain of the universe be-
tween them. The Jews got hold of |
this idea during their captivity in Baby
lon, where modern Biblical criticism de-
termines much of the Bible to have been
written. it now being pretty we'll con-
ceded that Moses had no hand in writing
any of it. This spirit of evil was con-
siderably elaborated by the Jews,
whose jealous monotheism made the
adversary subordinate to the great |
Jehovah: and it was probably owing to
contact with races who peopled every
tree, river and mountain with spirit |
and explained every occurrence by SUI
pernatural agencies that they multi |
piled their devils, assigning one to nearly
every disease, just as they explained
boiling springs of medicinal waters as
being moved by angels. The ideas of
the Jews were adopted, of course, by
the early Christian fathers; still they
added some curious features to the con-
ception, For instance, Tertullian says
.'Satan is Gods ape" and Satan is but
the Hebrew for devil. And in the
writings of lren@us and Origen it was
asserted that the atOnement was made
to satisfy the demands of the devil, and
this was the idea prevalent in Christen-
dom for more than thousand years.
The devil was no allegOrical person
age to the early Christians. He was a
. personal, living, OmnipreSent, Aide
Vouring reality. St. Dunstan caught
him by the nose with red-hot pair of
tOngs, and held him till he rOared with
pain. He was always assuming some
seductive shape to tempt the pious an
chorites of old. The last authentic ac-
count of his visible appearance was
when Martin Luther threw leaden
inkstand at his head. After this he be-
came more of symbol than anything
else, and of late has retired to the theol-
ogy of the backwoods, where he yet
does yeOman'S service as a whOOper-up
Sc